Electrically operated toasters are stock items in most domestic kitchens, and they tend to be reasonably robust and reliable in use, despite the relatively modest purchase prices which have come to be established for them. Changes in traditional eating habits, however, leading to the development of popular taste for a wider variety of toastable foodstuffs, have recently led to technical developments which have increased the sophistication of toasters, enhancing their efficiency and providing greater flexibility of use.
One particular aspect of toasters which has received attention in this respect is their ability to cope with foodstuffs of quite widely differing dimensions; in particular, the thickness dimension of foodstuffs which users may wish to toast can vary widely. Several proposals have thus been made for so-called “variable slot” toasters which can accommodate foodstuffs having width dimensions ranging from relatively narrow, say for thinly-sliced bread, to relatively wide, for bagels and similar products.
Not all of these proposals have been commercially successful, however, and it is believed in this respect that (inter alia) difficulties have been experienced in constructing certain internal components whose dimensions need to change with variations in slot width economically whilst maintaining ruggedness and reliability in operation, bearing in mind that such internal components operate in an extremely hostile and challenging environment.
Such difficulties as aforementioned are particularly acute in respect of the foodstuff-supporting carriage, which is mobile within the toaster slot; this carriage being latched down in a lower position to support the foodstuff adjacent the heater elements whilst it is being toasted, and then released to spring upwards when the toasting cycle is complete, thereby presenting the toasted foodstuff for easy withdrawal from the toaster slot. It is well known for the heating elements to be de-energised when the carriage is raised to its presentation position, and for the latching-down mechanism to be ineffective unless power is applied to the toaster.
It will be appreciated that the carriage needs to be capable of reliably supporting a wide variety of foodstuffs whatever the slot position set by the user, since potentially hazardous situations could arise if this were not the case. For example, the toaster could jam with the carriage down (and thus the heaters energised) if foodstuffs could become entrapped between an edge of the carriage and a heater element or heater support and thus a potential fire hazard could arise. In this respect, it needs to be borne in mind that a user might inadvertently set (or leave) the slot at a wide position whilst attempting to toast a relatively thin food item.